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This article is a timeline of inventions made by people who were citizens of the United States, or its predecessor colonies.
On March 6, 1646, the first patent in North America was issued to Joseph Jenckes by the General Court of Massachusetts for making scythes. On April 10, 1790, President George Washington signed a bill into law establishing the modern patent and trademark system which continues to be used to this day. As of February 10, 2009, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted 7,479,950 patents Examples of patents include Nikola Tesla’s transmission of radio, Ransom Eli Olds’ assembly line, and Willis Carrier’s air-conditioning.
Colonial Period (1607-1776)
1717 Swim fins
- Swim fins now are made of rubber or plastic, to aid movement through the water in water sports activities. As a young boy and avid swimmer, Benjamin Franklin invented the wooden swim fins in 1717, consisting of 10-inch long and 6-inch wide palettes for either the hands or the feet.
1731 Sextant
A sextant is an instrument which measures the angle of an object above the horizon. The angle, and the time when it was measured, can be used to calculate a position line on a chart. It was invented 1731 by Thomas Godfrey, a glazier in Philadelphia. In England, John Hadley had independently begun work on a similar version of the sextant.
1742 Franklin stove
The Franklin Stove, also known as the circulating stove, invented by Benjamin Franklin, is a metal-lined fireplace with baffles in the rear to improve the airflow, providing more heat and less smoke than an ordinary open fireplace. The stove became very popular throughout the American colonies and gradually replaced open fireplaces.
1744 Mail order
Mail order uses the postal system for soliciting and delivering goods. According to The National Mail Order Association, Benjamin Franklin invented and conceptualized retail and mail order cataloging in 1744.
1749 Lightning rod
A lightning rod is one component in a lightning protection system. In addition to rods placed at regular intervals on the highest portions of a structure, a lightning protection system typically includes a rooftop network of conductors, multiple conductive paths from the roof to the ground, bonding connections to metallic objects within the structure and a grounding network. Individual lightning rods are sometimes called finials, air terminals or strike termination devices. The pointed lightning rod conductor, also called a "lightning attractor" or "Franklin rod," was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749 as part of his groundbreaking explorations of electricity.
1761 Armonica
- Benjamin Franklin invented an arrangement of glasses in 1761 after seeing water-filled wine glasses played by Edmund Delaval in Cambridge, England. Franklin, who called his invention the "armonica" after the Italian word for harmony, worked with London glassblower Charles James to build one, and it had its world première in early 1762, played by Marianne Davies. In this version, 37 bowls were mounted horizontally nested on an iron spindle. The whole spindle turned by means of a foot-operated treadle. The sound was produced by touching the rims of the bowls with moistened fingers. Rims were painted different colors according to the pitch of the note.
Independence and Manifest Destiny (1776-1861)
1782 Flatboat
- A flatboat is a rectangular boat with a flat bottom and square ends generally used for freight and passengers on inland waterways. After serving through the American War of Independence in the Pennsylvania line, Jacob Yoder built a large boat at Fort Red Stone, on the Monongahela River, which he freighted with flour and carried to New Orleans in May, 1782. This was the first attempt to navigate the Ohio and Mississippi rivers for commercial purposes.
1784 Bifocals
- Bifocals are eyeglasses whose corrective lenses contain regions with two distinct optical powers. Benjamin Franklin is credited with the creation of the first pair of bifocals in the early 1760s, though the first indication of his double spectacles comes from a political cartoon printed in 1764. Many publications from that period refer to Dr. Franklin's double spectacles, including his first reference to them in a letter dated August 21, 1784.
1784 Automatic flour mill
- Classical mill designs were generally powered by water or air. In water-powered mills, a sluice gate opens a channel and starts the water flowing and a water wheel turning. American inventor Oliver Evans revolutionized this labor-intensive process by building the first fully automatic mill near Philadelphia.
1785 Artificial diffraction grating
- In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical component with a regular pattern, which diffracts light into several beams. The first man-made diffraction grating was made around 1785 in Philadelphia by David Rittenhouse who strung 50 hairs between two finely threaded screws with an approximate spacing of about 100 lines per inch.
1786 Ocean current mapping
The Gulf Stream, and the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current originating in the Gulf of Mexico, exiting through the Strait of Florida, and following the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In 1786, Benjamin Franklin studied and measured ocean depths and wind speed in order to come up with the first, accurate concept drawings of the phenomenon of navigating ocean currents which is still used today in shipping lanes and routes.
1792 Cracker
A cracker is a type of biscuit that developed from military hardtack and nautical ship biscuits. Now crackers are usually eaten with soup, or topped with cheese, caviar, or other delicacies. The holes in crackers are called "docking" holes as a means to stop air pockets from forming in the cracker while baking. Crackers trace their origin to the year 1792 when John Pearson of Newburyport, Massachusetts invented a cracker-like bread product from just flour and water that he called "pilot bread." An immediate success with sailors because of its shelf life, it also became distinctly known as a hardtack or sea biscuit for long voyages away from home while at sea.
1794 Cotton gin
- The cotton gin quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seedpods and the sometimes sticky seeds, a job previously done by hand. These seeds are either used again to grow more cotton or, if badly damaged, are disposed of. It uses a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through the screen, while brushes continuously remove the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. Eli Whitney and his invention made possible a revolution in the cotton industry and the rise of "King Cotton" as the main cash crop in the South. However, it never made him rich. Instead of buying his machine, farmers built inferior versions of their own which led to the increasing need for slave labor from Africa.
1795 Wheel cypher
The Jefferson disk, or wheel cypher, is a cipher system for encrypting messages and used as a deterrent for codebreaking. Using 26 wheels, each with the letters of the alphabet arranged randomly around them, Thomas Jefferson invented the wheel cypher in 1795.
1796 Rumford fireplace
The Rumford fireplace created a sensation in 1796 when Benjamin Thompson Rumford introduced the idea of restricting the chimney opening to increase the updraught. Rumford fireplaces were common from 1796, when Benjamin Rumford first wrote about them, until about 1850. Thomas Jefferson had them built at Monticello, and Henry David Thoreau listed them among the modern conveniences that everyone took for granted. Rumford and his workers changed fireplaces by inserting bricks into the hearth to make the side walls angled and added a choke to the chimney to increase the speed of air going up the flue. It produced a streamlined air flow, reducing turbulence so the smoke would go up into the chimney rather than choking the residents. Rumford fireplaces are appreciated for their tall classic elegance and heating efficiency. This simple alteration in the design of fireplaces was copied everywhere in an age when fires were the principal source of heat. The Rumford fireplace is still used in the 21st century.
1804 Burr Truss
- The Burr Arch Truss, Burr Truss, or the Burr Arch, is a combination of an arch and a multiple kingpost truss design typically implemented in the construction of covered bridges. The design principle behind the Burr arch truss was that the arch should be capable of holding the entire load on the bridge while the truss was used to keep the bridge rigid. In 1804, American architect Theodore Burr, a cousin of then Vice President of the United States,
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